


The fields of Elysium

by ImGroovyAndIKnowIt



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Afterlife, Canon Compliant, F/M, Post Episode: s04e19-e20 Daybreak
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-17 20:15:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28854936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImGroovyAndIKnowIt/pseuds/ImGroovyAndIKnowIt
Summary: When she dies, Laura gets on a boat to the fields of Elysium
Relationships: William Adama/Laura Roslin
Comments: 1
Kudos: 14





	The fields of Elysium

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this a while ago and found it again today, so I thought I'd post it. It's short and how I imagined the afterlife to be.  
> Those aren't tears in my eyes, I just... *sniffles*

In the end, it’s like falling asleep. 

When Laura opens her eyes again, the sun almost blinds her and she holds a hand above her eyes to shield them. She looks at her hand with a raised eyebrow. It's not bony like it got to be as she lost so much weight, weak and trembling and threatening to snap like a twig if too much pressure was exerted on it. It’s full and still and healthy, with a rosy colour in place of the sickly pale skin. 

Her skull isn't bald, her legs hold her up without trembling, she's full of the kind of energy that comes with being whole and healthy. Her hair is back to luscious red curls and she runs a tentative hand in it. The softness under her fingers almost makes her cry.

She's on a boat. It's  _ that _ boat. Her heart clenches at the thought of what that means, the thought of leaving Bill alone in his raptor. They both knew it was coming, and as she left the world of the living, he showed her the most beautiful view. The place where she led her people, her mission completed. She couldn’t have asked for anything else.

The shore comes suddenly into sight, and she recognises faces. Her family is there, smiling parents and waving sisters, and it's been so long since she's seen them all, she can't quite believe it. They're waiting for her. They're all just like she remembers them, and it warms her weary heart that they can spend time together again. This is what the afterlife is for, she realises.

When she disembarks, they embrace, and it's long overdue. She catches them up on life in the Colonies and after, and they gasp in all the right places as she tells the story of the attacks and everything that happened afterwards. Sandra ironically calls her 'Madam President', and Cheryl giggles every time she does. The title she got after the apocalypse feels weird on her sister's lips, but Laura doesn't complain.

She asks her family how they knew to wait for her then, and they unhelpfully say they just had a feeling. She wants to be ready for when she has to wait on the shore, and this doesn’t help.

She thinks about Bill often, the man who taught her so much about life, ironically, when she was dying. More than anything, she hopes she’ll see him again, but that he’ll take his time, that he’ll have a chance to enjoy humanity’s new home when she couldn’t, and spend quiet time with Lee.

Time passes but she doesn’t notice it. Things like that don’t matter there. She roams the fields until she finds the perfect place and then she settles. She had to stop at some point, because the fields of Elysium had no bounds, and if she tried to see it all, she would roam forever. She can’t do that. She wants to be there when Bill arrives, and start their afterlife together. She starts laying a plan for that cabin where they’d live. She's no architect, but she has time.

She meets a lot of people, reunites with those lost in the attacks, her few friends from Caprica, her fourty-two colleagues before her in the line of succession, including the former president who’s baffled at the things she’s done. She sees Billy, they spend a long time talking and she can’t help but beam at him. Elosha is there, too, and Laura fills her in on the end of their journey, how she truly was the dying leader after all.

One day, she just knows, and makes her way back to the shore where they all arrived. The boat is there, in the distance, still just a small dot in the endless river.

Among the people there, next to her, stands a young man. Laura looks at him closely, his square shoulders, the curve of his mouth, his intense gaze when he turns his eyes to her. She smiles softly and holds out her hand. Bill’s son. Captain Apollo’s brother.

They talk and laugh and share stories as the boat slowly comes closer, and she finds so much of Bill and Lee in him, it’s almost staggering.

When she gets a first look at Bill again, her eyes well with tears, and her vision gets too blurry again to see anything but a figure standing at the front of the boat, looking ahead. 

Bill disembarks, slowly, his eyes and mind overwhelmed by the sight that Laura and Zak present. He feels like he cheated the system -- never believing in the Gods, but getting into the fields of Elysium anyway, lucky to see his son and the love of his life again. He hugs his son like he dreamed of for years, shares meaningful words, the ones he had time to prepare, but his son ends up pushing him towards Laura, claiming they can catch up all he likes later. 

Laura bites her lip, and Bill gives her a teary smile before they’re in each other’s arms, murmuring names in between words of affection, of longing and love. They don’t care how long they stay like that. No mission, no responsibilities, no cancer, no Cylon attacks, nothing like that exists anymore. 

Laura asks about Earth, and Bill promises he’ll tell her all about it. They hold hands, and never let go. He tells her of the cabin he built there, next to her grave, how she would have loved it. She kisses him then, and the feel of her, whole and fierce, brings new tears to his eyes. She tells him of the one she’s been building for them, and how they would both love it.

Bill looks between his flesh and his heart, his son and his wife, in a conversation again, and that’s the sight that lets him know it’s not a dream, but the afterlife. His only hope now, is that Lee carries on his life on Earth and joins much, much later.

They talk about life on the Galactica, in the dark of deep space, and Zak looks at him, and deadpans ‘dad, you don’t throw a woman like that in the brig.’

Laura nods at him in agreement, her smile warmer than the sun, and squeezes his hand. They laugh and walk away from that shore, together. 


End file.
